The results of a six-month-long probe conducted by the Department of Justice have revealed what federal officials have labeled a pattern of unlawful conduct exhibited by the Ferguson Police Department which is laden with constitutional violations.

Among the findings
published in the 102-page report released by the Justice
Department on Wednesday are well-documented trends showing that
officers from the Ferguson Police Department have routinely
detained and arrested residents without probable cause or
suspicion, according to the DOJ, and have all too frequently
resorted to using excessive force.

Eric Holder, the United States attorney general, said the
“searing report” suggests the Missouri city of barely
21,000 had become a “community where deep distrust and
hostility often characterized interactions between police and
area residents.”

The analysis, released as expected on Wednesday, comes seven
months after a member of the city’s police force fatally shot
Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teen, and ignited a
firestorm of criticism directed at law enforcement, local and
otherwise. The DOJ said earlier Wednesday that a separate
investigation led authorities to decide not to charge the
shooter, former cop Darren Wilson, with civil rights violations
related to the incident, and a grand jury decided previously that
he wouldn’t be indicted over Brown’s death.

After nearly a year of demonstrations and rallies held across the
United States to protest Brown’s killing alongside an apparent
nationwide epidemic of similar officer-involved incidents, the
Justice Department formally acknowledges now that its lengthy
investigation has yielded evidence of an approach that
“reflects and reinforces racial bias, including
stereotyping,” according to the reports.

Examples uncovered by the DOJ during the course of the probe
reveal that blacks are disproportionately targeted by the police.

“This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of
unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that
violates the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the
United States Constitution, and federal statutory law,”
reads a portion of the 102-page report’s summary.

“Ferguson’s police and municipal court practices have sown
deep mistrust between parts of the community and the police
department, undermining law enforcement legitimacy among African
Americans in particular,” the DOJ concluded.

After collectively spending around 100 working days in Ferguson,
near the Missouri capital city of St. Louis, and reviewing tens
of thousands of pages worth of reports, the DOJ determined the
African Americans are all too often the victims of police abuse,
sometimes even exclusively, according to the review.

“In every canine bite incident for which racial information is
available, the person bitten was African American.”

Among the report’s
conclusions are that blacks account for 85 percent of vehicle
stops, 90 percent of citations received and 93 of arrests made by
Ferguson Police Department officers. According to US Census data,
however, Ferguson is composed of only around 67 percent African
Americans.

“Nearly 90 percent of documented force used by FPD officers
was used against African Americans,” the DOJ determined.
“In every canine bite incident for which racial information
is available, the person bitten was African American.”

According to the DOJ, the Ferguson Police Department’s behavior
falls in line with what investigators say is a “revenue
rather than by public safety needs.” Officers within the
department not only targets blacks indiscriminately, the
investigation found, but charges, citations and arrests appear
motivated not by eliminating crime but increasing local revenue.

“This emphasis on revenue has compromised the institutional
character of Ferguson’s police department, contributing to a
pattern of unconstitutional policing, and has also shaped its
municipal court, leading to procedures that raise due process
concerns and inflict unnecessary harm on members of the Ferguson
community,” the DOJ said.

Constitutional violations

Attorney General Holder said the investigation confirms that
“constitutional violations have become routine” within
the city’s law enforcement, and the examples outlined in the DOJ
report are anything but isolated incidents.

“Our investigation showed that members of Ferguson’s police
force frequently escalate, rather than defuse, tensions with the
residents they encounter,” he said.

Speaking of the disparity in numbers with regards to race and
arrests, Holder said the “deeply alarming statistic points to
one of the most pernicious aspects of the conduct our
investigation uncovered: That these policing practices
disproportionately harm African American residents.”

“In fact, our review of the evidence found no alternative
explanation for the disproportionate impact on African American
residents other than implicit and explicit racial bias,”
Holder said.

Outside the realm of law enforcement, the DOJ determined that the
courts systems in Ferguson is ripe with instances of abuse as
well. A “strategy of revenue generation through policing has
fostered practices in the two central parts of Ferguson’s law
enforcement system – policing and the courts – that are
themselves unconstitutional or that contribute to constitutional
violations,” the report reads in part.

“Officers violate the Fourth Amendment in stopping people
without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without probable
cause, and using unreasonable force. Officers frequently infringe
on residents’ First Amendment rights, interfering with their
right to record police activities and making enforcement
decisions based on the content of individuals’ expression.”

The DOJ has offered 26 recommendations for officials in Ferguson
to adopt, and Holder said that he will aim “to reform their
law enforcement practices and establish a public safety effort
that protects and serves all members of the community” in
Ferguson and elsewhere.

In a statement on Wednesday, the parents of Michael Brown said
they are saddened by the decision not to charge Wilson with civil
rights violations, but added they “are encouraged that the
DOJ will hold the Ferguson Police Department accountable for the
pattern of racial bias and profiling they found in their handling
of interactions with people of color.”

“It is our hope that through this action, true change will
come not only in Ferguson, but around the country,” they
said.